Two Days Postpartum: Sunday

David James' first bath . . . just a sponge bath for now to wash his hair. He promptly sucked his fingers for comfort.

The house was fast becoming a housekeeping wreck, so I came up with a fun game to inspire cheerful scrambling to clean the house. I wrote on index cards all the tasks to get the downstairs looking spiffy and assigned each one a quite modest stipend.

Rules

1. Pick one chore you want to do.
2. Complete that chore.
3. Your chore must pass inspection before you're allowed to pick another chore. (No hoarding chore cards.)
4. Mama writes your name on the card in order to pay you at the end.


I've rarely seen such cheerful helpers! They raced around and the downstairs was shipshape quickly. I hope this exercise helps teach them that when we work together cheerfully (or four kids, with Mama in a chair), a seemingly hopeless mess can all be gone within 15 minutes!

I can foresee problems with the system: kids becoming bratty and refusing to help unless paid. But given my postpartum state and unable to enforce discipline, I'm willing to use this fun little trick, at least for a few days.


(Retroactively published to Sunday)